Package housings for elongate objects, such as, for instance, drill attachments, have long been known. By way of example, reference is made in this regard to U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,499 and to US-A-2001/0008215, in which a packaging suitable, inter alia, for drills (drill attachments) is described.
Dental drill attachments, because of their fragility, place especially high demands upon their packaging. This packaging should ensure that the dental implant drill, for example, remains intact even if the packaging falls to the floor.
In addition, such dental drill attachments must be kept sterile with respect to their use. In order to ensure sterility, on the one hand at least the drill tip, i.e. the part which comes into contact with the tissue of the patient, should be kept under sterile conditions until shortly before use. On the other hand, it should be possible to remove the drill attachment from the packaging without the cutting region of the drill (the “bit”) being touched.
Correspondingly, in DE-A-102005022385 there is described an individual packaging unit for fragile articles, which has a base containing an upwardly directed receiving bore in which the foot of the fragile article is inserted and projects in a self-supporting manner. The fragile article is here protected by means of a protective cap. The packaging described in DE-A-102005022385 is foldable about an axis running transversely to the longitudinal axis, the article to be protected being freely accessible in the course of the folding.
This packaging has the drawback, however, that, due to the arrangement of the drill in the packaging, the base and the receiving bore must be ultraclean in order to prevent unwanted contamination of the article. This necessitates, on the one hand, a suitable choice of material for the packaging, while, on the other hand, the production of the packaging must take place under clean-room conditions, which is often associated with a relatively high cost. Furthermore, the visual perceptibility of the packed article is restricted, since it is sunk in a receiving bore. A resultant blunder, specifically in connection with dental drill attachments, is particularly undesirable however, since sterility can no longer be ensured once the sterile barrier has been broken open and the dental drill attachment must therefore be discarded.